Darfur! (pronounced "darFOUR," not "darFUR")

This new blog topic is going to be on a more serious note than my last ones. After the Holocaust in the 1940s, the US basically claimed that they wouldn't let this kind of thing happen ever again. But it's happening right now. In 2003 a group called the Janjaweed has committed heinous crimes against humanity.

In Darfur, Sudan, because of this, over 400,000 people have been killed. To put this in perspective, there are about 2,000 students at Anderson. Say there's about 500 faculty and staff members, making to a total of about 2,500 people total. Think of all the people you know, and I mean ALL of them, that you know at the school; your friends, your teachers. Think of passing periods when the hallways are packed with kids. Multiply this number of people by 200. Think of the UT stadium in Austin, The Darrell K Royal Memorial stadium, which holds about 80,000 people. The people killed in Darfur is FIVE TIMES that many people. There's currently 26,900 people living in Austin. The amount of people killed in Darfur is FIFTEEN TIMES that many people. All of those lives lost because America was too chicken to interfere soon enough. Now granted it's not as extreme as the 11 million men, women, and children that were slaughtered during the Holocaust, but if we don't interfere soon, this could get even more out of hand.

Think how big and powerful America is. The leading country of the WORLD, and how easily we could just interfere in this horrible situation. How easily we could just come in and put pressure on the government. We could do anything- demand they stop. Even reduce trade and look elsewhere for the materials. All this going on, and we're more interested in John and Kate's divorce than millions of people that need our help? I think it goes without saying that we're the most to blame for this going on. Because we have the resources within our reach to put a stop to this, and we're not DOING anything. It's OUR fault this has gotten so out of hand. We need to interfere and put at stop to this before it spreads, and we're too busy debating whether it's really genocide or not rather than trying to put a stop to it. Genocide or not, people are dying every day NOW because we're too worried about getting our hands dirty.

Here's a good video targeting the Genocide in Darfur:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXdWDM4fmRY

*ENORMOUS sigh....*

Well, on a brighter note, the most exciting part of MY last two weeks has been...Well, really not much. Although (sorry to takl about band again) we just recently finished one of the BIGGEST competitions of the year for band. Region Band try-outs. It's definetly a big one. I've been working on the music since about July, and this Thursday we went over to Westlake HS for a good five hours. Basically, we played four boring peices on Marimba (2 for this), Timpani and Snare drum that, lets face it, no one really cares about. But now I'm just glad now that I don't have that hanging over my head. It is D-U-N done!

Anyway, live long and prosper fellow carbon-based life forms!